Back in the early- to mid-90s, I and a few other volunteers began a small non-profit for the Mid-Atlantic earth-based spiritual community. In the beginning, its sole activity was to produce a regular publication, and a small one at that. Within a few years, the project had become my full-time, all-volunteer (i.e. \u201cnon-paying\u201d) job. The publication expanded into a full-sized newsprint periodical, distributed around this country and in several others. We\u2019d added regular worship ceremonies, annual festivals, classes and workshops, networking with other earth-based faith groups as well as other mainstream religious groups in our area, occasionally speaking to the press, and much more. As you might imagine, the responsibilities involved in such an undertaking required a dedicated team of tireless volunteers along with countless supporters and contributors. During those years, I was rarely ever alone. Despite the fact that I am at heart an introvert, my role in the organization required me to be something of a low-level public figure. My calendar was packed cover to cover, usually a year or more ahead of any given date. The work fulfilled me, but often left me exhausted\u2014a fact I ignored for far too long. I wasn\u2019t very smart about the extent of my involvement. I kept throwing myself into the fray instead of stepping back to allow others to take the reins once in a while.<\/p>\n
Fourteen years after we began the project, burnout finally struck. I hit that wall so hard that I walked away and never looked back.<\/p>\n
Two years later I began to write\u2014not just the spiritual articles or essays I\u2019d written in past years, but a novel manuscript. I\u2019ve blogged before about that early attempt, the hundreds of thousands of words that meandered in fun but pointless directions and along numerous connected yet complicated paths. It was mostly a hobby, something I did to amuse myself outside the retail job I\u2019d begun when the non-profit closed down. My calendar was no longer full, and I was content with that.<\/p>\n
Now, ten years later, my writing is more than a hobby, and my life is the total opposite of what it was in those years of franticity. (It\u2019s a word now<\/em>.) Though I seldom venture out to non-writing-related social events these days, I am forever grateful for the network formed during that earlier time. It\u2019s always fun to chat with old friends online. And on occasion, those contacts provide a helpful knowledge base. A good example: my short story \u201cUpshot\u201d features a character living in the cloud forest of Guatemala, and I foolishly used Spanish as her native language. I even had my friend Susan, who is a Spanish-English translator by trade, proof my usage for accuracy. It didn\u2019t occur to me that this was erroneous until an accommodating editor rejected the story with the observation that my research was mistaken, and that I should look into which tongues would be spoken by isolated indigenous peoples in that region. Another long-time friend, Laura, travels to Guatemala on a regular basis and was able to provide input on the matter. I\u2019m still working on the rewrite, but I am confident these well-established channels will provide valuable assistance.<\/p>\n My contact with those social circles of old is now mostly restricted to online activity, while actual real-world hours\u2014when I do leave the computer behind\u2014are spent alone or with my hubby in the presence of Nature (which feeds my spirit), or with other writers in an inspirational or educational environment (which feeds my craft). Because for the most part, writing is a solitary art. Every writer is different, of course. Some can write in cooperation with others, or pen their stories in a crowded and noisy coffeehouse. They can effectively block out their surroundings and focus on the voices in their heads. Not me. When I\u2019m working on a story or a scene, I need quiet. I need isolation. And I need to be left alone.<\/p>\n I know I\u2019m not the only writer who feels this way\u2014it\u2019s an oft-repeated sentiment among other writers I\u2019ve met, and with good reason: the focus required to get the story from one\u2019s head to the computer screen (or the written page) is immense. Distractions leech the creative juice that feeds that process. Each of us has our own methods of working. Some write best in the morning\u2014sometimes early<\/em> morning before the sun is even awake. Some write best in the post-midnight hours. Some write whenever their schedules afford them a half-hour slot between dropping the kids off at school and taking the dog to the vet for her annual checkup. (Look how J.K. Rowling started.)<\/p>\n However we manage to do it, writers know that the pursuit of writing as something more than a hobby is easily a full-time job. Add to that the pressures of a regular day- or night-time job (the one that pays the bills), family obligations, and the requisite solitude for self-care, and there is little time left for anything else. Having burned out once before, I know better than most how important that balance can be. Even so, I occasionally overschedule myself and spend a day (or two) in recuperation mode where even if the Muses do speak, I am too fried to hear. I am still learning to step back, take a breather, allow downtime to recharge, and not be too hard on myself if I don\u2019t make my daily-word-count target.<\/p>\n What\u2019s your process? How do you avoid burnout in your writing routine? Share your ideas with me!<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n<\/body>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Back in the early- to mid-90s, I and a few other volunteers began a small non-profit for the Mid-Atlantic earth-based spiritual community. In the beginning, its sole activity was to produce a regular publication, and a small one at that. Within a few years, the project had become my full-time, all-volunteer (i.e. \u201cnon-paying\u201d) job. The…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[3,17],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-678","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-blog-posts","category-on-writing"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p8n0kX-aW","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":464,"url":"https:\/\/www.dremadeoraich.com\/index.php\/2017\/11\/14\/native-seeds\/","url_meta":{"origin":678,"position":0},"title":"Native Seeds","author":"DremaDeoraich","date":"November 14, 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"by Catherine Wells Novella, 19,132 Words Published in the November 2017 issue of Analog Science Fiction and Fact Edited by Trevor Quachri After the Food Wars and a series of global storms and other cataclysms force the evacuation of Earth, two small bands of survivors remain behind. The Men on\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Reviews"","block_context":{"text":"Reviews","link":"https:\/\/www.dremadeoraich.com\/index.php\/category\/reviews\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":5684,"url":"https:\/\/www.dremadeoraich.com\/index.php\/2025\/03\/24\/antunas-story\/","url_meta":{"origin":678,"position":1},"title":"Antuna’s Story","author":"DremaDeoraich","date":"March 24, 2025","format":false,"excerpt":"The Antunite Chronicles, Book 1 By Terry Birdgenaw \u00a9 May 16, 2022, Cyborg Insect Books 190 pages ASIN: B0B1KWFF24 \u00a0 This story was\u2026unique. While it did remind me at times of Adrian Tchaikovsky\u2019s Children of Time series, Antuna\u2019s Story was written more simply, without the deeper sophistication of Tchaikovsky\u2019s storytelling\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Reviews"","block_context":{"text":"Reviews","link":"https:\/\/www.dremadeoraich.com\/index.php\/category\/reviews\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"A bee, a roach, and a fly line up on a carved brown staff, while an ant, and a spider wait at the bottom. Background is a deep green shadowy forest thick with foliage. Text says, \"Antuna's Story. The Antunite Chronicles. Terry Birdgenaw.\"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.dremadeoraich.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/81Q8Wfl4ITL._SL1500_-197x300.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":5312,"url":"https:\/\/www.dremadeoraich.com\/index.php\/2024\/12\/29\/lost-sentinel\/","url_meta":{"origin":678,"position":2},"title":"Lost Sentinel","author":"DremaDeoraich","date":"December 29, 2024","format":false,"excerpt":"Earth Survives Series, Book 1 By Rex Roberts \u00a9 December 10, 2020, Pajama Therapy Books ASIN: B08QCLJ6S6 Kindle Version, file size 4165 KB Imagine a post-apocalyptic storyline where dark stuff is happening, a story wherein people are doing hard things to survive a global pandemic that wiped out 98% of\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Reviews"","block_context":{"text":"Reviews","link":"https:\/\/www.dremadeoraich.com\/index.php\/category\/reviews\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"A man and woman dressed in forest green cammo stand facing away from the reader, against a pathway that that leads into a thick forest. A spiral winds away into the canopy.","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.dremadeoraich.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/12\/LostSentinel-188x300.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":3232,"url":"https:\/\/www.dremadeoraich.com\/index.php\/2023\/04\/09\/wecu-inc-we-see-you\/","url_meta":{"origin":678,"position":3},"title":"WECU Inc. (We See You)","author":"DremaDeoraich","date":"April 9, 2023","format":false,"excerpt":"By Rick Stevens Kindle Vella Project (Active) Foster kid Kieran spends most of his time alone, exploring the basement of the old apartment building where his family lives. His only friend is Charles, the maintenance man. But when he meets Malaya, another kid his age in the same building, the\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Reviews"","block_context":{"text":"Reviews","link":"https:\/\/www.dremadeoraich.com\/index.php\/category\/reviews\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.dremadeoraich.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/04\/080-WECUInc.jpg?fit=563%2C900&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.dremadeoraich.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/04\/080-WECUInc.jpg?fit=563%2C900&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.dremadeoraich.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/04\/080-WECUInc.jpg?fit=563%2C900&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x"},"classes":[]},{"id":663,"url":"https:\/\/www.dremadeoraich.com\/index.php\/2018\/04\/02\/non-traditional-alternatives\/","url_meta":{"origin":678,"position":4},"title":"Non-Traditional Alternatives","author":"DremaDeoraich","date":"April 2, 2018","format":false,"excerpt":"My novel (the first book of a trilogy) has been out on query for months now. I\u2019ve gone through a list of agencies and am now trying publishing houses that don\u2019t require representation. I also want to try a few small presses and see what they can do for me.\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Blog Posts"","block_context":{"text":"Blog Posts","link":"https:\/\/www.dremadeoraich.com\/index.php\/category\/blog-posts\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":7632,"url":"https:\/\/www.dremadeoraich.com\/index.php\/2026\/04\/15\/the-last-of-the-elvis-ninja-robots\/","url_meta":{"origin":678,"position":5},"title":"The Last of the Elvis Ninja Robots","author":"DremaDeoraich","date":"April 15, 2026","format":false,"excerpt":"By Michael Stephens \u00a9 August 29, 2025 File size: 1.0 MB 317 pages ISBN-13: 979-8992980516 Fifteen-year-old Lexi Ames is smart. No, really. Like, super-duper smart. In fact, she\u2019s the only one who successfully decodes a mysterious message coming from outer space. Unfortunately, decoding it also unlocks it, and sets it\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Reviews"","block_context":{"text":"Reviews","link":"https:\/\/www.dremadeoraich.com\/index.php\/category\/reviews\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"A young woman and an Elvis impersonator stand in front of a large satellite dish where two green aliens hide behind a box. Text reads, \u201cThe Last of the Elvis Ninja Robots. Michael Stephens.\u201d","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.dremadeoraich.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/61lRLhWXzL._SL1000_-188x300.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.dremadeoraich.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/678","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.dremadeoraich.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.dremadeoraich.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.dremadeoraich.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.dremadeoraich.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=678"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.dremadeoraich.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/678\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":679,"href":"https:\/\/www.dremadeoraich.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/678\/revisions\/679"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.dremadeoraich.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=678"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.dremadeoraich.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=678"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.dremadeoraich.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=678"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}